


Stars & Hearts

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Adventurer Tony, Alternate Universe, Creature Fic, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Prompt Fic, but its really not, mermaid bucky, ok so this feels kind of historical, this is also more preslash than slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-02 23:11:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16314446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Tony has always yearned for adventure. He gets restless easily and Rhodey says its going to get him killed but he doesn’t really care so long as he doesn’t die in a field or his father’s bakery. There’s only so many ways to bake a bread before it just gets old. “Get that look off your face, we’re going to die out here,” Rhodey says, curled up to the side of the large boat they’re on looking a little worse for wear. If not for his skin tone Tony is sure he’d be green. He doesn’t do well at sea but Tony doesn’t mind.“You’ll be fine Rhodey, you’ve survived worse than this. Remember the trip back to Italy?” he asks.





	Stars & Hearts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JacarandaBanyan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JacarandaBanyan/gifts).



> Original prompt: WinterIron, Tony is a researcher on a boat and Bucky is a mermaid/sea creature of some sort.
> 
> So this is sort of that lol. Anyways, idk how to describe this but this is a somethin!

Tony has always yearned for adventure. He gets restless easily and Rhodey says its going to get him killed but he doesn’t really care so long as he doesn’t die in a field or his father’s bakery. There’s only so many ways to bake a bread before it just gets  _old_.

“Get that look off your face, we’re going to die out here,” Rhodey says, curled up to the side of the large boat they’re on looking a little worse for wear. If not for his skin tone Tony is sure he’d be green. He doesn’t do well at sea but Tony doesn’t mind.

“You’ll be fine Rhodey, you’ve survived worse than this. Remember the trip back to Italy?” he asks. Rhodey gives him a dirty look because yeah, they ran into everything from sand storms to a freak wave that was like a hundred feet tall. It was nuts and when Tony told people about it they thought  _he_  was nuts but whatever. He saw what he saw.

“I also remember thinking your pale ass was a ghost and a bad omen and now you’re going to get me killed,” he says, clenching his mouth shut as the boat shifts more than normal.

Tony rolls his eyes, “and I thought you were a demon that was going to kill me, lets not act like first impressions matter,” he says. In hindsight his reaction was stupid, he knows people come in different skin tones but he hasn’t run into many people that are darker than him in his area of the world. Up north is where they get really pale, but compared to what Rhodey is used to he must have looked like marble. “Also,” he says, “we’re three days away from land by my estimations.”

Rhodey lets out a long, thin noise. “You said that three days ago,” he mumbles.

“Yeah, but this time we’ve been seeing birds so we’re definitely close to land. And we still have those sweet fruits from the last time we hit land, they keep well,” he says excitedly.

“I wish you were actually a ghost,” Rhodey mumbles.

“Well I’m happy that you aren’t actually a demon. You scared the hell out of me.” Didn’t help that the ship Tony was on hit a storm and washed up on a beach who the hell knows where and Rhodey was who found him. He’d been delirious and confused and its not like Rhodey knew what to do with some random soggy adventurer. Its a funny story now but they were right freaked out when they met. Tony has to wonder why the hell Rhodey thought ghosts would show up soggy and starving on a beach but hey, he thought Rhodey was a demon and he doesn’t even  _believe_  in demons so its not like Rhodey was the most illogical one in that situation.

*

Tony has to physically restrain Rhodey from jumping off the ship and swimming to land when they finally see an island and he’s not impressed about it. “Look, I need that land,” he tells Tony.

He rolls his eyes, “you will survive for another forty five minutes, Rhodey, now relax.”

Rhodey glares at him, “you’re only saying that because you aren’t ready to barf, Stark. Get. Me. To. Land.”

He rolls his eyes again but does his best to follow Rhodey’s request. When they’re far closer to the island though he frowns. “Is anyone else confused as to why we haven’t hit land yet?” he asks. They’re close enough that they should have hit  _something_  by now.

“I’m not confused, I’m pissed and nauseated,” Rhodey tells him, looking unimpressed.

Tony looks over the edge of the boat at dark water, too dark to be this close to land usually. Of course they have to run into a weird island. “You know what, whatever. Rhodey is going to whine and cry over here if he doesn’t get to throw up in the sand so drop the anchor,” he says. When the thing nearly runs out of chain to keep it attached to the boat they’re all shocked but they manage to make it to shore just fine and Rhodey lays in the dirt with the waves lapping at his ankles for an embarrassingly long time.

*

As usual the first thing he does is explore, which Rhodey refuses to do with him after finding what appeared to be a pig with tusks. Tony doesn’t find anything he finds especially unusual so when he finds a cave he enters it, somewhat surprised to find water in it. There’s a light source coming in from somewhere too, shining in on the water. Its stunning so Tony decides to sit for awhile and relax some. He watches the water for a long time, admiring the way the light hit the water before the sound of something surfacing causes him to turn his attention to it.

Obviously he’s heard the legends, they all have, but he’s never seen a mermaid in real life. The mermaid stares back at him for a few long moments before it moves a little closer. Tony has heard all kinds of stories about them, like that they lure sailors to their deaths, or that they’re mostly innocuous, and he doesn’t know which kind this one is. If there is a kind specifically. Or was it sirens that lured sailors to their deaths?

The mermaid swims a little closer, head barely above the water as it moves closer. Tony leans forward out of curiosity, marveling at the way it moves so effortlessly. Its more graceful than any fish Tony has ever seen.

When it gets to the shore, if you could call it that, Tony realizes that the water must be a lot deeper here than he thought. The mermaid sticks its head above water, revealing long brown hair and surprisingly bright blue eyes. “Um. Hey,” he says, not knowing if this thing understood his language or not. He gets a squeak back so he takes that as a no. “Waters around here are pretty deep,” he says for lack of anything better.

The mermaid squeaks at him again, throwing some water out of the sea with surprisingly human-like hands. The webs between the fingers aren’t normal though. Well, for humans. The mermaid squeaks again, throwing water out of the sea again but this time its aimed and Tony  _so_  does not appreciate being wet.

“Rude,” he tells the mermaid, throwing water back on it. The mermaid doesn’t look phased by this at all, probably because it lives in the damn water.

*

Bucky has always been curious about humans though he knows to be cautious, they can be vicious when they want to be, but the one he finds on the shore is soft. He can tell because he cares so much about the darker human he seems especially attached to. Bucky has learned to recognize the friendlier humans and this human in particular has shown all the friendly signs with his other human companion. Plus Bucky watched this human wander around the island as best as he could, curious about his bright eyes and smile. He seems to take a special delight in things that are different than him so Bucky is sure that will extend to the things in the sea.

He thinks maybe he should warn the human away from those red flowers that hurt his skin but he doesn’t know if humans have skin like his anyways. They certainly can’t swim like him, they flail around in the water in a way that’s embarrassing to look at. The human doesn’t understand the language of the sea though and the noises that come out of his mouth are unpleasant and strange. Not worse than any of the other noises he’s heard humans make though. Each group seems to be different and he’s figured out that boats headed from certain areas tend to use the same noises. Natasha thinks that humans have a bunch of different languages. Bucky thinks that’s inefficient.

The human seems to react well to his attempts at contact, which makes Bucky feel vindicated because Natasha said he’d get killed and Steve was too sick to chase after him. Then the human thinks throwing water on him will draw a reaction, which he seems to realize is stupid fast.

Bucky tries to tell him that it’s pretty strange to throw water on a sea creature but the human doesn’t understand. Instead he pulls back a little and Bucky worries he’d offended him or something but he pulls out a strange orange ball. He peels some of it away, which Bucky finds odd, before pulling the ball apart and handing a small slice to him. He considers not taking it but the human shakes it a little, something he recognizes as a sign of urgency from watching humans for so long. He takes the small slice and sniffs at it. It doesn’t smell bad but he doesn’t know what it is.

The human takes a bit of the ball himself and sticks it in his mouth, chewing on it. Food, then. Strange food, Bucky prefers fish to orange balls, but he puts the food in his mouth and chews. He wrinkles his nose at the strange taste, its far too… sweet for his tastes. The fish is bitter, flatter in taste and this is an explosion of flavor that he doesn’t like. He shakes his head because this is not good. The human seems to find some kind of happiness in this because he makes the noise all humans do when they find something amusing.

*

Tony is curious about the mermaid so he goes back, finding him there more often that not. After he started bringing food regularly, finding that the mermaid didn’t like most of it, and the mermaid starts bringing him food too. He’s never seen the fish he gets as a gift before but Rhodey seems to like them quite a bit. Tony isn’t overly fond of fish, he prefers fruits and red meats, but he always takes the gifts.

He’s sitting by the shore eating a fruit he found on the island when the mermaid drags him into the water unexpectedly. He lets out a loud yelp and flails a little but eventually finds his metaphorical footing and treads water, earning a disapproving look from the mermaid. “What? Not all of us have fins,” he says though this guy moves especially gracefully. And his tail is beautiful too, black with bits of sliver and a bright red that’s Tony’s exact favorite shade. He’s also far larger than Tony.

The mermaid shakes his head at him though, swimming closer and grabbing Tony’s arms. He tries to pull himself free because he kind of needs those limbs but the mermaid pulls him closer. Tony frowns, not understanding until the mermaid shakes his head again and moves his arm a specific way, freeing Tony’s arm and trying to force it to move the same way.

In the ensuing twenty minutes Tony learns how disappointed a fish can be at his actions as he tries, and fails, to teach Tony how to move in the water. But Tony isn’t aquatic, he’s meant for land even if he can technically swim. That doesn’t mean the mermaid doesn’t try though, hard. He keeps bending Tony’s limbs this way and that and Tony can’t mimic his movements for the life of him. But he does get a few good tips on how to move in the water even if his companion obviously isn’t impressed with him.

*

Humans get pruney in the water, which Bucky learns after Tony gets out of the water sopping wet with wrinkled finger tips. Bucky’s skin doesn’t do that and he wonders what would happen if a human stayed in the water too long, or if that’s possible. He keeps this in mind the next time he drags the human, his companions seem to call him ‘Tony’ if he’s getting the noise right, into the water. As usual Tony lets out a yelp as he flails around in the water and Bucky sighs. This is a travesty, the water is weeping at Tony’s inability to move.

He tries to get Tony to move right until he’s pruney and then frees him with some fish because  _someone_  has to ensure this human eats something worth eating instead of those orange balls. Tony still eats a strange amount of orange balls, and some other strangely colored things Bucky recognizes from the island and those don’t taste good either. He wonders if Tony has some kind of desire to punish himself.

*

Rhodey doesn’t believe Tony when he says he found a mermaid, and he sure as hell didn’t believe that’s where the fish came from, but when Tony starts waxing poetic about the damn fish he decides to go see it for himself. No one else believed Tony either but they figured if he kept coming back with fish they weren’t going to complain. They stayed away from the fruits though, figuring they had hallucinogenic qualities. Rhodey ate some of the fruits, they don’t do that, but he’s pretty sure Tony must be on  _something_  if he’s going on about how pretty the fish’s tail is.

“See,” Tony tells him proudly, “I  _told_  you I found a mermaid,” he says, gesturing to an honest to god human fish. Much uglier than Rhodey thought he’d be with the webbed hands and pale skin, but he thinks the skin thing is fish specific. Tony’s skin tone might have confused him at first but he’s pretty in a way the fish is decidedly not.

“Well… that’s a fish,” he says eventually, unsure how else to react. The mermaid swims up to the shore, right up to Tony and reaches out of the water.

Tony steps out of his shoes and takes the mermaid’s hand, laughing as he’s flung into the water and oh  _hell_  no Rhodey is not swimming with the fish. He’s not fond of the water on account of the seaweed and also the crustaceans that look too much like bugs for his liking. People eat those sea spiders and he doesn’t understand why that is a thing. But then most people don’t share his fear of bugs and all things like bugs, including the things in the sea. Water scares him even if he swims just fine, its just that land is much more solid.

Tony doesn’t give a damn because he fears absolutely nothing, and he especially doesn’t fear the fish. They swim around, the fish much more graceful than Tony though it does seem to be trying to correct his movements. Rhodey is pretty sure Tony can’t move that way but Tony doesn’t seem to care and oh,  _oh_.

“You get out of the water!” Rhodey tells him. Tony looks over, frowning. The fish seems to be confused too and Rhodey doesn’t know if it knows their language, or if it can understand Rhodey’s accent, but he doesn’t care either. “This would never happen where I’m from! We  _eat_  fish, we don’t make heart eyes at the fish!” Its a crude translation but he thinks he can be forgiven given the situation.

“I’m not making heart eyes at the fish and he’s a mermaid,” Tony says. “Very intelligent too. Does not like nuts  _at_  all. He likes fish more than anything else.” Tony says this like Rhodey cares what the fish eats.

Rhodey doesn’t give a damn what the fish likes. “You are so making heart eyes at the fish. Get out of there before you do something you won’t want to explain to your mother.”

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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